After 3 Worlds Part 2: Two Legions?

(This was originally published on November 2, 2008)

As I see it, there are three basic possibilities at the end of L3W: (1) All three Legions wind up in separate universes; (2) Some stay and some go away; or (3) All three Legions stay in the same universe.

Let's consider the third possibility: three Legions (or, at least, their surviving members) all in one universe. What to do?

Everyone could just band together into one (bigger) Legion. I don't see this as likely, for two reasons. First, it would be an awful lot of characters (I know, I know, when has that ever been a problem with the Legion?). Secpnd, and more important, it would result in a mixed team of adults and teens -- and I just don't see that happening.

IMHO, it would be better to establish two teams: an Adult Legion and a teenage Legion. DC has done this before, with two separate titles: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES and LEGIONNAIRES. This time around, I could see them putting the adult group in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES v. 6, and resurrecting ADVENTURE COMICS for the teen Legion.

So who would be in the teen group?

I assume that DC would want to minimize duplication of members (i.e. you don't want to have two or three Brainiac 5's running around). So let's see if we can build a team around teen characters who have no living counterpart in the classic (Lightning Saga) Legion.

From the Earth-Zero Legion, we have:

- Andromeda
- Ferro
- Gates
- Gear
- Kid Quantum
- Kinetix
- Shikari
- XS 

From the Teenage Revolution ("Threeboot") Legion, there's one candidate:

- Dream Boy

So far, it's a pretty bare team, but there are some more possible members:

- Spark (Earth-Zero): her counterpart, Light Lass, has different powers
- LeVIathan (Salu Digby) (Earth-Zero): her counterpart, Shrinking Violet, has different powers
- Star Boy (Teenage Revolution): his counterpart is now Starman...plus, being black, he's visually distinct from the adult Thom
- Thunder (Earth Zero): Last seen departing for the far future, she could come back

- Princess Projectra (Teenage Revolution): Adult counterpart is Sensor Girl, who has a different name and different powers
- Sensor (Earth-Zero): A different species, so visually distinct from Sensor Girl and Projectra

Now it's starting to look like a Legion. But wait, there's more. From either teen team, we can choose:

- an Invisible Kid (Lyle Norg): adult counterpart is Jacques Foccart, a whole different person
- a Karate Kid: adult counterpart, Val, has died several times already
- Triad (Earth-Zero) or Triplicate Girl (Teenage Revolution): we don't know the status of her adult counterpart, but she's most probably either Duo Damsel or Una

Depending on when the Lighning Saga Legion diverged from original continuity, the following may have never been Legionnaires:

- Magnetic Kid (Pol Krinn): If the Magic Wars never happened, Pol is still alive...hooray!
- Quislet: I don't care what anyone else says, I liked him
- Tellus: Gotta have a telepath in the group....

Finally, here are some names from out of left field, possibly as future teen members:

- Catspaw: appeared in LEGIONNAIRES but has not been seen in any of the current continuities
- Computo (Danielle Foccart): Jacques' little sister, might be too old
- Dragonmage: OK, in L3W #2 he was shown dead...but he could get better. Death isn't the handicap it used to be.
- Kent Shakespeare aka Impulse: No known counterpart in any current continuity
- Kono: had a counterpart in the Earth-Zero universe, but not yet in the classic/Lightning Saga universe
- Devlin O'Ryan: No known counterpart in any current continuity...plus, can call him "Reflecto"

There you have it: a teen Leigon with anywhere from 18 to 27 members, all in some way distinct from the adult Legionnaires.

One problem remains: what to do with all the duplicates, the multiple Brainiac 5's, Sautrn Girls, etc.? I see three possibilities: (1) They don't survive L3W; (2) They go away, into another dimension or the Phantom Zone or somewhere else; (3) Some die, others have their names and/or powers changed so they can fit into the teen Legion without confusion.